UW Carbone Cancer Center

Runner's Arms

This month's Activity Avenue works through your upper body, trunk and hips. We will perform this exercise using dumbbells, but you can also use household items such as canned goods to substitute if you do not have dumbbells.

A Few Tips for Performing This Exercise

If you have limitations for back rotation, keep your arm swings smaller and slower than then the video demonstrates. Bigger range of motion with your arm swings and faster movement will create more twisting of the spine and movement through the hips to ankles.

You can perform this exercise without dumbbells to perform more cautiously

Let the motion of your arms create the motion of your trunk and hips instead of artificially 'wagging your tail.' This will allow for a more natural rotation through the body.

Note that the instructors knees are slightly bent, allowing for free movement bending and straightening from the knee and hip with every arm swing.

If you have a tendency to hold tension in your shoulder and neck muscles, you might try a few shoulder rolls back to allow your neck muscles to release a little before and after the exercise.

Remember to find a breath pattern that fits with your arm swings. It may be 3 – 4 arm swings as you breath in and 3 – 5 as breath out, see what fits your movement pattern.

Start with 10 – 15 swings per arm and build up to 30 – 60 second bouts.